Safer Lives Survey

How does violence manifest in young lives?

Too many young people in the UK are growing up surrounded by violence. Such violence can manifest in a range of forms, from the face-to-face violence that many young people witness in their schools, homes and communities, to the violence that flows into young people’s lives through a range of digital screen technologies.

In order to gain a better understanding of how violence manifests in and impacts young peoples’ lives, the Youth Violence Commission has piloted a national survey which is being rolled out to a select sample of young people across the country between Monday 15th January and Friday 23rd February 2018. The Safer Lives Survey asks young people about the levels of violence that they are exposed to in their everyday lives. To the best of our knowledge, it will be the first national survey of young people’s views on this important subject matter.

The results of the survey will provide an underlying evidence base for the Commission and will ensure that young people’s views are central to our work. Once the responses from our controlled sample have been collected and analysed by Warwick University and The Open University, our academic partners, we will publish the Safer Lives Survey online to allow young people across the country to participate in the survey and contribute to our ongoing findings.

Implementing the Safer Lives Survey

The cohort of young people in the initial sample have been selected from across youth organisations, schools, colleges, universities, Pupil Referral Units and YOIs in England, Scotland and Wales. All young people taking the survey were supervised by an adult, due to the sensitive nature of the questions. The survey questions have been approved by Warwick University’s ethics committee and have been developed by academics alongside young people.

We would like to thank the following voluntary sector organisations in particular, who distributed and completed the Safer Lives survey with some of the young people they work with: Active Communities Network, The Rio Ferdinand Foundation, The Positive Youth Foundation in Coventry, Positive Futures North Liverpool, Positive Futures Newport and Active Potentials in Hull.